Saint John is preparing for winter with a plan that will increase the focus on sidewalk plowing and adjust how resources are used to reduce the problems crews encountered last year.

City staff brought its winter management plan to council Monday night.

Six storms hit the city last winter, according to a staff report submitted to council.

"For five of the six storms last winter, we only achieved our service standards on 75 per cent or less of our sidewalks,” Tim O'Reilly, the public works director, told council.

Some of those storms left city sidewalks caked in ice and snow for days and in some places weeks, which made getting around hard for pedestrians. These included a storm Christmas Eve and one in February, which brought ice pellets as well.

“This performance was not acceptabl

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